Since the beginning of the year, EMS Battalion Chief Bill Lockhart spoke twice a month to a Laguna Niguel resident, who died Wednesday from a fire at her condominium. Lockhart had offered resources and social service options to the woman, who had physical impairments. Lockhart said, “We developed a relationship over the phone. I wanted to help her.”

Fifty times between January 2013 and the July 23, 2014, fire that took her life, Rosemary DePalma called firefighters to her condominum in Laguna Niguel.

Almost always, the 911 calls were sparked by less-than-emergency situations. DePalma, who was in her 60s and bedridden, often just needed a hand. Sometimes it was a glass of water; sometimes it was a fallen pill bottle.

And the guys at Fire Station 39 were ready – and legally required – to oblige, lights flashing, sirens blaring.

In terms of the rescue service industry, the Laguna Niguel woman was known as a “frequent flyer,” a chronic caller for emergency help in non-emergency situations.

According to a report by UC Davis, up to 40 percent of the statewide calls for emergency medical service are for non-emergencies, mostly from the inebriated.

So big is the non-emergency demand on 911 that the California Emergency Medical Services Authority is launching a pilot project into what it terms “community paramedicine” that is training and equipping paramedics to help with social and community services.

DePalma’s 911 call of July 23 was a true emergency. Her Via Catalina condo was on fire. This time, authorities found DePalma dead, a victim of smoking in bed. Neighbors said they tried to get into her condo to help her, but the smoke was too thick.

Firefighters who had come to like DePalma feared this call would someday come. During their many encounters with the woman they had found her with cigarette burns on her nightgown or her mattress, leading to warnings about the dangers of smoking in bed.

“If firefighting was just running into burning buildings and dragging heavy things, then we could hire 6-foot-4 gorillas. But we are looking for someone with an altruistic, caring heart,” said EMS Battalion Chief Bill Lockhart.

“Much of what we do is getting down on our knees and holding the hand of an old woman.”

Such work would be enhanced, not eliminated, in the new pilot program.

Paramedics would be allowed to divert patients from expensive emergency rooms and send them instead to smaller urgent care facilities, or social services, when appropriate.

A Rand Corp. study found that between 14 percent and 27 percent of emergency room visits in 2010 were for non-emergencies. Avoiding those visits could save an estimated $4.4 billion a year nationally, the report said.

San Francisco General Hospital reported $12.9 million in annual uncompensated charges linked to 225 chronic visitors.

Several states, including North Carolina, Colorado, Minnesota, Maine and Texas, have started community paramedicine programs.

While the emphasis is to improve service, some agencies have saved money. In Colorado, one county saved $1,250 per visit in health care costs for each patient enrolled in the program. In San Diego, one program reduced 911 contacts by 38 percent.

Some Orange County fire departments are scheduled to take part in the state pilot project, but Orange County Fire Authority is ahead of the curve.

Long before the July 23 fire, firefighters from Station 39 were working hard to keep DePalma safe and comfortable.

They called social groups, enrolled her in Meals on Wheels, contacted the county Council on Aging and other groups that provide in-home support. One firefighter even made a holder for DePalma’s television remote so she wouldn’t drop it so often.

They helped clean her house to socialize with her.

“They figured their jobs didn’t stop when the fire truck rolled back to the station,” Lockhart said.

“It was almost like caring for an elderly parent,” added Lockhart, who has four or five other “frequent flyers” whom he monitors.

“She was always polite and very apologetic about calling 911, but she didn’t feel like she had any alternatives.”

So troubled were firefighters over DePalma’s death that one paramedic – when it all was over – declined to go inside her house. He didn’t want to remember her like that.

“We’re just sad for her,” said Capt. Jim Day, at the fire station. “We were trying to get her to move some place where she could get some help. But she had all her mental faculties and they couldn’t force her to move out.

Tony Saavedra is an investigative reporter specializing in legal affairs for the Orange County Register. His work has been recognized by the National Headliner Club, the Associated Press Sports Editors, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association and the Orange County Press Club. His stories have led to the closure of a chain of badly-run group homes, the end of a state program that placed criminals in inappropriate public jobs and the creation of a civilian oversight office for the Orange County Sheriff's Department, among other things. Saavedra has covered the Los Angeles riots, the O.J. Simpson case, the downfall of Orange County Sheriff-turned felon Michael S. Carona and the use of unauthorized drugs by Olympian Carl Lewis. Saavedra has worked as a journalist since 1979 and has held positions at several Southern California newspapers before arriving at the Orange County Register in 1990. He graduated from California State University, Fullerton, in 1981 with a bachelor of arts in communication.

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